Meet Our Trainers

Mount Saint Vincent employs educated, highly skilled staff to work with the children, train employees, and train caregivers in the community, which includes teachers, court-appointed special advocates, parents and foster parents, counselors, and others.

Kirk Ward, LCSW, is the executive director and clinical director of Mount Saint Vincent. He has worked in various capacities at the agency since 1984. Ward has more than 30 years of experience working with children who have experienced trauma, abuse, mental illness, and neglect. As a trauma expert, he is frequently asked to speak on the subject. Kirk also performs clinical assessments of traumatized children throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Ward holds undergraduate degrees in psychology and history from the University of Colorado and received his Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver.

Daniel Hines is a Senior Workforce Training Specialist for Mount Saint Vincent. Since arriving at the agency in 1989, he worked in various capacities, including mental health worker and unit manager of two of the residential cottages. In 1999, Hines developed and ran the Intervention Team program, a school program that is still in use today. Hines is a certified CPR/AED/First-aid instructor through the American Red Cross, and he conducts monthly courses for all staff. Hines also attained his professional certification in TCI (Therapeutic Crisis Intervention), making him one of 44 people in the world to have achieved this goal. In his current capacity, he works with members of the training team and supervisors to evaluate and develop training programs specific to staff members’ needs. These include monthly TCI training courses designed to help staff maintain self-control, understand the children’s behavior, and manage violent situations calmly and safely. Prior to coming to Mount Saint Vincent, he worked as a crisis intervention trainer and a residential counselor for St. Joseph Children’s Home, a residential treatment center for children. Hines attended Marymount College in Salina, Kansas, where he majored in psychology.

Kyle Bixenmann, Senior Workforce Training Specialist, has been a part of Mount Saint Vincent since 2007. In his time working with the organization, he has been a mental health worker, educational mental health worker, and both a member and the unit manager for the agency’s intervention team. He has been a certified Therapeutic Crisis Intervention trainer since 2011 and has been partnering and coordinating with therapists, supervisors, and clinical trainers to create criteria referenced instruction, designed to provide staff members the skills necessary to deliver trauma-informed care. His focus is on developing multimodal, application based trainings to best engage adult learners in their preferred learning style to ensure greater transfer of knowledge. While studying as a Boettcher Scholar at the University of Denver, Kyle attained his B.A. in both philosophy and political science. He also holds an MBA from the University of Denver with a concentration in Values Based Leadership.

Jessica Pfeiffer, LCSW, SSW, is the Trauma Training Specialist and Clinical Supervisor of Educational Programs at Mount Saint Vincent. Over the last 14 years, Jessica has worked in a variety of settings including residential treatment, day treatment, in-home therapy, early learning center, wilderness therapy, outpatient, animal-assisted therapy, and intake and assessments. As the Trauma Training Specialist she trains, consults with, and mentors different systems who are implementing a trauma informed framework. Jessica’s primary focus of practice is supporting school systems and educators in becoming trauma informed to ensure all students who have experienced child maltreatment can be successful in school. Her theoretical framework is based in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) through the ChildTrauma Academy. She supports the ChildTrauma Academy as a faculty member for their educational boot camps and is a certified NMT Train the Trainer. Jessica is an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. She is also an adjunct professor at Warburg College in their social work program. She completed her undergraduate degree in Social Work at Wartburg College, in Waverly, Iowa. She received her Master of Social Work degree and Animal Assisted Social Work Certificate from the University of Denver.

Jennifer Veldhoff, LCSW, SSW is a Lead Clinician and Senior Clinical Training Specialist at Mount Saint Vincent. She has worked at the agency in various capacities since 2002, including intake supervising clinician, treatment leader, and clinical supervisor. Veldhoff has more than 20 years of clinical experience working with children, adults and families within the child welfare and mental health systems. She has received specialized training in forensic interviewing, child abuse, and domestic violence and she is a certified Train the Trainer in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT). Currently, Veldhoff conducts external NMT assessments and oversees the quality of implementation of the NMT throughout Mount Saint Vincent’s programming. Veldhoff received her Bachelors of Arts degree in psychology with a special emphasis on early child development from Michigan State University in 1996. She received her masters of social work degree from the University of Michigan in 1999.